First, I have to say, the Mormons scared the shit out of me. It was late afternoon on a Sat when they knocked at my door. When I opened it and saw two men standing there in crisp, white shirts and ties my first thought was , FBI!!!! Of course I suddenly realized these were the Mormons there to explain all things Mormon to me!
Elders Novak and Lott, two very polite, and very nice looking (those Mormons are a good looking bunch!) sat on my front porch with me and answered all my questions. There are a lot of discrepancies about Mormons out there, one of the more common misconceptions is that they are not Christians. This is because of the doctrinal differences. They do not believe that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one, they believe they are separate. They do follow the teachings of Jesus Christ though, so doesn't this make them Christian? So confusing.
They do not believe in drinking coffee, tea or wine. This seems strange because Jesus himself drank wine, but they claim that it was not wine he drank but grape juice, that it all translated differently. They explained to me that these things aren't good for you anyway, but the truth is a lot of tea's and even some wines have been proven to have health benefits. This is something I would find difficult to follow. I do love my lattes, my teas and my occasional glass of wine. Although the Elders did say Pepsi was OK. Hmmm?
They explained a little about the Book of Mormon. I am not a historian nor a Biblical Scholar, but some of there historical beliefs seem a bit flimsy. I guess for me, I have a hard time giving that much credence to Joseph Smith. The fact that no one ever saw these golden plates and he apparently wasn't able to relay these accounts a second time to Martin Harris, one of his translators. I don't know, maybe these things did happen as Joseph Smith said, but I, for one, have a hard time swallowing it.
I attended the services on Sunday and Elder Novak was waiting at the front door. He was kind enough to sit next to me (did I mention that the Mormons were a good looking bunch?) and answer all my questions during the service. The first thing that struck me was that the church itself was very plain, there were no crosses, no stained glass windows. Elder Novak explained to me that this is because you should focus on the life of Jesus, not the the death. This made sense to me though, although as I have mentioned before I do rather enjoy some of the pomp and circumstance of some religions.
They took communion right away, which was different than any other church I have attended thus far. This consisted of actual bread and surprisingly water. I am still not quite clear on why it was water and not grape juice, something about keeping costs down. Several members came up that day and gave testimonies about their faith and they seemed to be quite emotional about it. Some even cried a bit. It was interesting and yes, very different than anything else I have seen during my "research".
Honestly, and please don't hate me Mormons, I felt the whole experience to be a bit Stepford Wife. I don't know why, but this is how I felt. That being said, the Mormons do seem to be a very impressive group of people. Very family oriented, kind and respectful. Am I Mormon? I think it's safe to say I am not.
Next week, a new one on me, Apostolic!
